My '63 C10 "I'd rather be driving" Project

[65sub]

Congratulations on the wedding John and nice job on the PS pump bracket

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

I'm just back from a little road trip...
I was toying with the idea of attending the nascar races in Atlanta. On kinda short notice, Wifey and I decided to stretch it out a few more days to do a little sight-seeing. We spent a couple days in Nashville and saw a show at the Grand Ole Opry. We moved on to Mobile Alabama for a few days of relaxation. I toured several wrecking yards, but never really found anything I needed. I was impressed with a couple very well organized "u-pull" yards where all the cars were on stands, and arranged in rows neatly by make. I also saw some real sh*t piles!

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

We've been to Florida many times, and my wife has always wanted to see alligators but for some reason we've never gotten around to it. While in Mobile, wifey got her wish and we took a drive to a place called Alligator Alley where we each got to hold a 'gator (with the mouth taped shut, lol). On the way there, I spotted three C-10's in and around a shed on a rural property.

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

We did a quick day-trip to New Orleans. It was my 2nd time there, wife's 1st. Fun walking around the French Quarter, but too many Scam-Artists trying to take advantage of Tourists. Next up was Atlanta...

The plan was to attend all 3 Nascar races... Xfinity & Trucks on Saturday, the Sprint Cup on Sunday. I've always been a huge fan of Motocross, and as it happened, the Atlanta round of Monster Energy Supercross was on the same Saturday. We decided that rather than drive the 45 minutes to the Atlanta Motor Speedway twice... we'd stay in the city on Saturday... see the Georgia Dome and go to Supercross. Sunday, we had a hot sunny day for Sprint Cup. It was an awesome weekend!

After the race we started our drive home. After a couple hours, we stopped for the night. Every year, I look for a Joe's Crab Shack (my fave restaurant chain!) and tonight was the night. We really enjoyed some great meals on this trip... seafood, Mexican, Po Boy's, and surprisingly good...Turtle soup.

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

Driving home, I was checking around to see what wrecking yards were near I-75 that I could stop to take a quick look. Near Knoxville TN I stopped at a "pull-a-part" where it was suggested that I check out Sonny's in Blaine TN. I searched, and saw that it's been mentioned on the forum before.

A little hard to find... address is 1375 Smith Hollow Rd
Blaine TN,37709

Once we found it, I was surprised that all these old cars were dragged up this pretty steep hill to their final resting place. I was pressed for time by now, so I just ran up and down the hills taking pics. I was surprised to see how much good 50's & 60's sheetmetal was still there, though not necessarily C10's.

Some pics...

[Paul Y]

I love a good junk yard.

Great pictures and congratulations!

P.

[clemdaddy]

Looks like a great adventure honeymoon and the fact that you got a girl who likes what you like… priceless. congrats.

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

Thanks guys!

Clem, I must've confused you with pics of my daughter's wedding. My wife and I will celebrate our 30th anniversary this year. But you're right... I'm lucky that she puts up with me, and actually likes many of the same things I do.

[clemdaddy]

sorry, i'm easily confused. just another senior moment.

[62stepside longbox]

Wow that's a great treasure yard. By the looks of it I could spend a week there and still have more to see

[mjh1965]

I am a bit late to the party , but good build thread . I love the scrap yard shots .

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

It's been a while, so here's a quick update.

I finally got around to reducing my brake pedal ratio, and at the same time lowered my brake and clutch pedals. My original plan was to add a bellcrank to the brake pedal rod, just like Chevyrestoguy did, but I gave up on it because I didn't have enough room due to flush-mounting my brake booster.

I ended up bending my actuating rod to re-align it with the brake booster, then added a welded gusset. Probably overkill. It worked out pretty well. I added an aluminum/bronze spacer to the spherical rod end at the brake pedal to stop the rod from wanting to flop sideways.

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

To lower the pedals I followed Jocko's thread, here... http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=516070

I did mine a little different. During my lunch break, I stopped by the local hardware store near my work and grabbed some rubber chair/table feet to fit 3/4" tube. These were the smallest size they had, and being that I'm impatient, I just bought them. I soon realized that these were too big to fit snugly on the head of a 3/8" screw.

Instead of making adjustable spacers, I decided to keep them simple, and I rattled off a bunch of 3/4" OD aluminum spacers in 1/16" height increments, then just choose whatever length was suitable. I drilled and tapped them 3/8-16, and used a setscrew and shiny acorn nut to hold it all together.

My clutch pedal spacer ended up being 1" long, which lowered the pedal 1-1/2". The brake pedal spacer is 7/8".

I also welded my clutch pedal where the shaft is swaged in at the top. I noticed it was wiggling when I dismantled it.

[lower50's]

Cool that should make it more comfortable to drive. Good job with the gusset over kill is never a bad idea.

[mjh1965]

I believe in the school of over engineering . Nice job, and I like the back stop idea as well

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

Originally Posted by mjh1965

I believe in the school of over engineering . Nice job, and I like the back stop idea as well

Haha, me too!

Sad thing is that it takes me weeks of hemming and hawing before I start any of these menial tasks. I am f**ked!

[ibrown50]

That's a great solution for the brake pedal, so much simpler than the bellcrank solution, have you driven it yet? Does it make much of a difference.

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

Ian, no I haven't driven on the street yet. It seemed ok back and forth in the shop. I think the lower pedals will make a big difference... probably not feel so "old truckish" any more.

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

Soon after getting my C10 I picked up a steel 1963 grille, with the intention of getting it chrome plated.

At that time I inquired at our local (highly regarded for beautiful work) chroming shop, and got an estimate of $900 sight unseen. Lately I figured that if I stripped all the 50 year old paint off, I could show what great shape the grille is in and hopefully get a reduced price. I took my bare metal grille to the chromer and got an estimate of ... $1200 plus our 13% sales tax! I'm sure the time of year had some bearing on the cost... but needless to say, that wasn't going to happen.

So I took a chance and took it to be powdercoated... to hopefully look at least like the hard to find anodized aluminum grille. It looks a little dark, so it's hard to say what it'll look like on the truck against the chrome bumper. Hopefully I can get it together by no later than this weekend.

Also, I added headlight relays... but I still need to clean up the wiring a little bit.

[aerotruk63]

Grille came out nice!

[Grizz1963]

I think you did very well with the grille.

What was the price for it done then?

[65sub]

Good looking grille John. Your work on the pedals is interesting. I'd like to hear your thoughts after driving.

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

Thanks aerotruk63!

Rian, I got it done for $150.

Dale, I hope to get it out for a drive this weekend. I'll post my opinion...

[lower50's]

The grill looks good $1200 is a crazy price, you can always get it done down the road tho. Headlight relays should work really good something I have been wanting to do in my Jeep for years.

[CRGRS 66]

Grill looks great in the pictures, was wondering how that came out.
Maybe I will get to see it in person this w/e....